Ending A Longer Fast: A Quiet Gut Revs Up Again
Longer-term fasts are different. Resuming eating after a longer fast takes more planning and care.
As we start to incorporate fasting into our routines, our bodies physiologically take a bit of time to adjust to the new regimen, especially if we used to eat constantly. As chronic eaters, our bodies are constantly spending metabolic energy producing digestive enzymes to process the food were consuming. This changes when we first start fasting. The digestive enzymes are not needed or produced.1
You Keep Breaking Your Fast
If you are used to snacking in between meals, staying without food for an extended fasting period could be difficult and affect your intermittent fasting results.
Consistently breaking your fast before your fasting window is up could be responsible for your lack of progress with intermittent fasting.;
Your fasting period might be too long and switching your eating schedule a bit might be helpful. Consider reducing your fasting period to about 10-12 hours and begin to increase it as time goes on.;;
Moving up slowly allows your body to get used to going extended periods without food, therefore, you are less likely to break your fast prematurely.;
When you can tolerate going longer without food, you could move up to the 16:8 intermittent fast. Here, you will have eight hours for feeding.
When Should I Exercise
When Varady and her colleagues conducted a study that combined alternate day fasting and exercise, they allowed the participants to pick whether they wanted to exercise on a feasting or fasting day, and found there was no strong preference one way or the other. But the researchers were surprised the dieters actually reported feeling more energetic on fasting days.
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The Difference Between Short And Long Fasts
Every night when we stop eating and then go to bed, we go through a short-term fast until our first meal of the next day. Depending on when you ate dinner and when you consume your first meal after you wake up, you can easily go through a 12 to 16-hour fast with no physiologic change to digestive functions.
Although there is no clear consensus or accepted definition about what the cut off is between a short and a long-term fast, Diet Doctor defines anything less than 24 hours as time-restricted eating, fasts between 24 and 36 hours as a short-term fast, and anything longer than 36 hours a long-term fast.
Time-restricted eating and short-term fasts dont require specific precautions when breaking the fast. Just remember it is a good idea not to binge on highly-processed, sugary, or high-carb foods because you will undo the advantages of the fast. Plan to eat a wholesome, low-carb, high-fat meal, such as any of the meals featured in the Diet Doctor recipes, and you will be just fine.
How To Do A 48
In theory, a 48-hour fast is simple you merely give yourself a full, two-day break from eating. One common method is to stop after dinner on the first day and begin eating again at dinnertime on the third.
Contrary to popular belief, you can still drink zero-calorie fluids, such as water, black coffee, and tea, during the fasting period.
Its vital to drink plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration, which is one of the major potential complications of longer fasts .
Afterward, its important to gradually reintroduce food. That way, you avoid overstimulating your gut, which may lead to bloating, nausea, and diarrhea .
Your first meal post-fast should be a light snack, such as a handful or two of almonds. This would be followed by a small meal one or two hours later.
On non-fasting days, you would maintain your usual eating pattern, making sure to refrain from overindulging in higher-calorie foods.
Its most common to do a 48-hour fast 12 times per month as opposed to once or twice per week, as required by other fasting methods. Appropriately spacing out your 48-hour fasts may offer greater health benefits .
As 48-hour fasting is not advisable for everyone, you should try shorter fasts, such as the 16:8 or alternate-day methods, before doing a 2-day session. This will help you understand how your body responds to a lack of food.
Although the health benefits of intermittent fasting are well documented, specific research on 48-hour fasting is limited.
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Why Might Changing Timing Help
But why does simply changing the timing of our meals to allow for fasting make a difference in our body? An;in-depth review of the science of IF;recently published in;New England Journal of Medicine;sheds some light. Fasting is evolutionarily embedded within our physiology, triggering several essential cellular functions. Flipping the switch from a fed to fasting state does more than help us burn calories and lose weight. The researchers combed through dozens of animal and human studies to explain how simple fasting improves metabolism, lowering blood sugar; lessens inflammation, which improves a range of health issues from arthritic pain to asthma; and even helps clear out toxins and damaged cells, which lowers risk for cancer and enhances brain function. The article is deep, but worth a read!
What Is The Best Intermittent Fasting Schedule What Is The Ideal Time You Should Be Fasting How Long Should You Fast
I keep getting these questions and I get it. You want to know what the best intermittent fasting schedule is. You want to make sure if you are fasting youre going about it right. We all have different reasons for fasting. Some fast for the incredible health benefits it offers, others are in it for the fat loss or both. When it comes to dropping fat intermittent fasting is a great tool to add to your arsenal.
One thing I usually recommend to those new to the intermittent fasting lifestyle is NOT announcing it to everyone. There is always that one person who is gonna tell you its unhealthy, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and starving yourself is not the answer to weight loss.;The fact that youre reading this tells me already know this and there is a high probability youve started intermittent fasting already.
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How Gender Impacts Your Fasting Routine
From a biological standpoint, gender can impact the success of intermittent fasting. Male and female body composition and metabolic systems are different from each other. Physical activity, hormone levels, caloric intake, and fasting impact each of us differently.
Due to these reasons, males tend to benefit from fasting more than females. Females also should not focus on long-term fasting or drastic reduction in caloric intake.;
Over thousands of years, the genetic makeup of females benefits most from the constant intake of high-quality calories, which eliminates such fasting regimes as 20:4 fasting from a female routine. The optimal amount of fasting would be 14 hours per day.
For males, skipping breakfast or skipping a day of eating might be just what the doctor recommended.;
In both cases, the most important thing is to avoid hangriness, a state when you become very upset while hungry. The key here is to balance out your meals and eat highly nutritious meals throughout the eating window.;
Generally, try to eat high-protein and high-fiber dishes to stay satiated for longer.
What To Do When Water Fasting To Burn Fat Cells
In the last section, we introduced water fasting, a type of intermittent fast thats come up frequently on this blog. When you drink water, it travels to your bodys cells to keep them hydrated. To speed up water absorption, sip on an empty stomach, such as being on a water fast.
Besides losing weight through calorie restriction on a water fast, you also rejuvenate and detoxify your system, sort of like hitting a giant reset button. Your liver begins breaking down toxins and your digestive system works better due to the oxygen content in water.
As we said before, water fasts can last 24 to 72 hours for the most disciplined fasters. Others water fast off and on so they can maximize their fasting time. Such was the case of a man who fasted for 382 days straight. Weve talked about this on the blog, but its a fascinating story that deserves another mention.
The man, who was 27 at the time of his fast, weighed 456 pounds when he started. For over a year, he consumed supplements and water. He weighted 180 pounds by the time he was done.
If you are eating between water fasting periods, youre probably doing so nutritiously. While you may supply some glucose to your system, the water fasting periods should burn through this.
Water fasting can change that, too. Our insulin sensitivity increases, meaning our body keeps better track of the insulin it produces and does not make more than necessary.
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A Day In The Fast: Intermittent Fasting Schedule
A bulk of intermittent fasting effectiveness depends on the fasting method you decide to use. Different people use different IF schedules to lose weight and improve their overall health.;
In this article, we will explain different intermittent fasting schedules and give you a glimpse into how your day could look like using some of the most popular ones.
This Is How Long It’ll Take For Intermittent Fasting To Work
When it comes to getting healthier and toning up your body, one of the most popular of the countless options out there right now is intermittent fasting . IF includes several different approaches to choose from, but most involve eating for only a short period of time during the day and/or limiting the amount of calories you consume. The results are apparent to those who’ve tried the method, but according to the experts, you need at least 10 weeks of following a few basic rules to see any changes.
Read on for more details about how best to make IF work for you, including whether the time of day you’re eating has an impact on your waistline and what other benefits you can expect from the method, aside from a lower number on the scale.
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How Long Should You Fast
A common question that I get all the time is, If fasting is so wonderful, how long should I be doing it?
To start with, the first question you want to ask yourself is, what benefit are you trying to achieve with fasting. I have identified that there are 7 different types of fasts, and they all have slightly different benefits to them.
If you are not familiar with the 7 different types of fast, please reference youtube video: for background on how to do all 7 of these fasts.
Daily Intermittent Fasting Plan
Try these various schedules, selecting the eating plan that works best for your lifestyle and fasting experience. Remember to repeat the same cycle every day.
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- 14:10: Eat between 9 a.m.-7 p.m.; fast between 7 p.m.-9 a.m. the following day.
- 16:8: Eat between 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; fast between 6 p.m.-9 a.m. the following day.
- 20:4: Eat between noon-4 p.m., fast between 4 a.m.-noon the following day.
- 23:1:;Eat one big meal per day, at whatever hour you wish.
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And Some Of The Donts Of Intermittent Fasting:
2. Do not add a lot of milk to your coffee. Only use half or teaspoon of milk when having tea or coffee. Milk does contain lactose which is sugar. This could derail the plan. Only use a small amount.
3. Use your fasting period to do stuff. Dont sit idle. Getting busy will stop you thinking about food.
4. Dont keep changing your feeding window if you are on the plan that allows food at certain times. If your eating window is between 12 Noon and 8pm, try and maintain that consistency every time. Its all about teaching your body to adapt to a new way of eating and fasting.
5. Do not go to social events where the place will be awash with food on your fast days. The temptation of having so many food choices and so much food around might be too much for you to resist.
6. On your feed days or eating window as the case may be, you should exercise caution in how much food you consume. Theres no need to stuff your face with so much food in an attempt to compensate for the fast period.
It is not a feast or famine ethos and you should refrain from seeing it as such. Eat sensibly!
Above all, be resilient. Its not as hard as it appears. Start small and build up.
If you like your coffee, you may be also interested in the answer to the question: does coffee break a fast?
Suggested further reading:
Lessons From Krystals Intermittent Fasting Weight Loss Journey
To give you a better idea of what intermittent fasting weight loss is like, Simple recently spoke with Krystal, a weight-loss influencer and intermittent fasting advocate. Krystal uses her platform of over 30,000 followers to encourage others to begin their path to wellness through the handle on Instagram.
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How Long Do You Need To Fast
However, you don’t have to adhere to 16:8 strictly. There are other methods of fasting people follow, such as 14:10 or even 12:12. Unfortunately, there is a cutoff for how long your fasting window should be if you want to see results from intermittent fasting.
Registered dietitian Susan Dixon, MPH, MS, said that research suggests that limiting your feeding window to between eight and 11 hours and your fasting time to between 13 and 16 hours keeps insulin levels lower for a longer period of time throughout the day.
“However, that doesn’t mean the relationship is cause and effect,” she told POPSUGAR. “It has been observed in the literature that people who fast for 13 or more hours nightly tend to be less likely to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, large waist circumference, obesity, and elevated blood lipids.” She added that these benefits aren’t observed in fasting windows of 12 hours or less.
And while these benefits go beyond weight loss, if you are looking to lose weight with IF, you still need to make sure you’re eating in a calorie deficit without going below 1,200 calories a day. To find your exact calorie target for weight loss, use this formula.
If intermittent fasting intrigues you, make sure you find a plan that works for you. But if you are looking to do IF daily, and to reap all the benefits, make sure you fast for at least 13 hours.
How Does An Intermittent Fast Burn Fat
Assuming youve never gone on an intermittent fast before, you may be fascinated with how this works. How does the body burn fat while fasting? Is it simply by calorie restriction alone?
Actually, no. To understand how your body torches fat, we first have to talk about the bodys energy source.
From the moment you wake up until when you go to sleep , your body needs energy. This is what allows you to get up, go about your daily routine, and enjoy your life rather than feel like youre dragging through it.
This energy comes from glycogen, a polysaccharide of glucose. Bacteria, fungi, animals, and humans alike all rely on glycogen to fuel our daily activities. When our systems receive glucose, a simple sugar, we can synthesize it to glycogen for energy through glycogenesis.
Where does glucose come from? Mostly in the foods we eat. The foods with the highest quantities of glucose are fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. Thus, if you eat a diet rich with olive oil, avocados, peanut butter, cheese, meat, fish, dairy, fruits and vegetables, pasta, rice, and bread, you get plenty of glucose.
If your body has more glucose than it needs, it holds onto it for later. This can increase your insulin, meaning your body will always burn glucose, even if given the chance to burn fat instead. Should you develop an insulin resistance and this becomes chronic, your body increases insulin production when youre full.
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The Bottom Line On How To Do Intermittent Fasting
Theres no single solution on how to do intermittent fasting for everyone,;but just about any healthy person can benefit from the practice.
Those who are intimidated by stricter fasting methods might try skipping meals first, then moving into a 16:8 fast. If you find these beneficial, move on to an alternate-day fast where youll consume 500 calories on fasting days. Finally, try a full 24-hour fast one day per week.
Intermittent fasting is generally safe to do as often as youd like. Just make sure youre eating enough food in between and eating whole foods. And lastly, dont be afraid to experiment to find what works best for you.
Intermittent Fasting And Sleeping
Besides staying without food for the said period, it is better to sleep during the fasting hours. Intermittent 12 hour fasting at night is easier because you will be asleep for the most part, say 7 hours. However, if you fast during the day, you may need to take a nap and keep yourself busy to avoid thinking about food that will lead to relapse.
You can begin by fasting weekly, then on several days of the week before making it a day to day routine. If you are fasting for specific days a week, for example, five days a week, eat as usual on the non-fasting days. Note that you may become irritable, and your concentration may momentarily dip during the fasting period as you begin this healthy journey. The good news is that your body will adjust within a month, and the side effects should disappear. If they are particularly severe or donât go away, consider stopping your fasting routine and discuss with your doctor.
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